It is fall so tennis fans huddle waiting patiently in Neverland.
We yearn to witness sensational tennis shots ricochet off the rackets of Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, and Murray. But any match will do. Maybe racket magic will reappear shortly in Madrid—if only we could watch.
ATP Tennis is scheduled 11 months a year, covering over 65 tournaments. In the U.S., if we are lucky, we might get to see the four Grand Slams and maybe a couple of Masters Events on U.S. television networks. This represents a tiny portion of all the ATP tennis being played and, speaking for all tennis lovers here in the U.S., we are sick of it!
We demand more live coverage, even if it is via computer through live streaming. We have remained in the dark long enough. If poker can be broadcast as an athletic event on ESPN, then tennis deserves it, too.
We realize that most U.S. sports fans consider tennis a rather prissy sport for snobs. In other words, they would bet money that Roger Federer could not match moves with Adrian Peterson, or that he could not hang with Kobe or LeBron. Or that the Swiss master is clinical and competent with a racket in his hand but is not a real athlete.
These same individuals will feel a bit better about Rafael Nadal because he at least sweats buckets. U.S. sports fans need beer, bean dip, burritos, bouts of swearing, and even barfing at sporting events at the professional level.
Deep down they suspect tennis is not a real sport—sort of like golf—except that because they play it, they tolerate golf and more specifically admire Tiger Woods.
Tennis will never find tenure in the hearts and souls of most U.S. sports fans—not now or anytime in the future, because tennis is not integral to the typical American sports psyche.
The un-silent majority fail to appreciate a sport where the umpire tells you to sit down and shut up—all very gently, of course.
It also doesn’t help that currently men's tennis is ruled by Europeans.
We have a couple of American men in the top 10—Andy Roddick and James Blake. But Americans don’t rule the sport and haven’t really since Sampras hung up his racket in 2002, although Roddick enjoyed the No. 1 ranking for a brief time at the end of 2003. When Pete won his last major in 2002, he was not ranked in the top 10.
Unfortunately for tennis fans living in the States, as far as U.S. television networks are concerned, if there are no Americans playing we will not be airing…at least not in the early rounds. We remain blocked at the source.
For tennis fans the epitome of this obfuscation occurred on June 16, 2008 when Bill Simmons, The Sports Guy, published an article in ESPN the Magazine entitled Wimbledon? I wouldn't miss it. And I don't mean that in a good way.
Tennis aficionados were appalled and perplexed by the attack. The article appeared prior to the epic Wimbledon championship match in July of 2008 between Roger Federer and Raphael Nadal—a five-set, five-hour masterpiece that Nadal won 9-7 in the final set. The players endured rain delays and darkness in a roller coaster match of considerable quality.
Tellingly the championship finale generated a seismic sensation swelling to a perfect 10 in the press. Simmons was roasted by his critics who pointed out that Wimbledon deserved attention and that tennis was relevant. For a short time afterward interest in tennis stirred within U.S. boundaries like leaves buoyed on a brief north wind.
Now the leaves are dropping, soon to be trampled underfoot as U.S. sports fans settle comfortably in front of mammoth HD screens supplemented with surround sound to watch college and professional football, the conclusion of Major League Baseball, all the while anticipating the onset of basketball and hockey of all levels, flavors, and genders.
For now, tennis has faded far into the recesses of the U.S. subconscious, perhaps to be revived at Wimbledon or the U.S. Open in 2009—maybe.
Tennis as a spectator sport and, more particularly one that can draw a respectable television audience in a U.S. market, has less appeal than reruns of the 2004 Bush-Kerry Debates, according to the networks.
People in this country don’t follow tennis because they don’t play tennis. Their sons, grandsons, nieces, nephews, cousins—no relative they know plays tennis, nor do any of their friends or acquaintances, with few exceptions.
As you travel through rural U.S.A. and you stop in typical county seat community, you will see many homes with a basketball hoop fixed over the garage door. You will see parks with baseball, softball, and even some recently converted soccer fields. At the high school, you will find a large football field tucked neatly within an all-weather track.
But rarely will you find a tennis court. If you do, it may well be cement with weeds growing between the cracks, often with no net or a severely dilapidated one. Tennis is not part of the sporting landscape in most U.S. communities.
People in this country love sports. We love to talk about them, poll them, and fantasize about them. We have more barfly analysts and Monday morning quarterbacks than ever. We know our football—about the value of an I-formation or a spread offense or why we would want to employ an on-side kick.
We also recognize a full-court press and a zone defense in basketball. We can articulate the need for a squeeze play in baseball. But just ask anyone—even those who should know—how ranking points are awarded in professional tennis, and then you will understand why tennis will never sell in major markets in the U.S.
But instead of decrying the absence of a huge market—here’s a thought! Appease the market you have and make it grow by giving us what we want! There are thousands of people who wish to watch tennis, who recognize and applaud the amazing athletes who populate the sport, who know tennis is at the apex of arduous athletic competition.
Currently we are forced often to follow matches in progress with nothing more than blinking scores on computer screens. We don’t mind digital media. We will watch matches on our computer screens as long as the image is fixed and large enough to see.
Has a tennis fan no rights at all? Is it fair that we should be denied access to the sport we love? It is complex, but it all boils down to supply and demand. We demand more tennis coverage, so someone please supply it!
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